RICHARD THOMAS SKINNER
b. 1871 d. 1943
Richard (Dick) Thomas Skinner was born 29 June 1871 at “Burren” Gulargambone, the 12th child of Alfred and Eliza Skinner’s children and was the uncle of Harry Reginald Skinner, who told the following stories about “The Uncle” as he called him.
Dick was a builder and built several houses around Gulargambone, one for his brother John Johnstone Skinner on “Orwell” called the “red house”. He bought a property at Warren of 2514 acres next door to his brother Henry at “Ulindi”. He moved to “Lucknow” Girilambone of about 7000 acres in 1921 and Harry went to live with him in the 1930’s
Nothing went to waste with Uncle Dick, he would announce that “it’s chicken for tea, I found that old speckled hen dead when I collected the eggs, she will do for tea.” Apparently the chooks weren’t locked up and roosted in the trees. If a visitor came and there was no food, The Uncle would go out and shoot a chook for food, provided he had enough.
They were putting up a new fence around the house and put the gateposts and gate up first. Whenever someone visited they always went through the gate, opening and closing it, although there was no fence. Apparently it was left that way for years because it amused The Uncle.
They used to go into Girilambone for supplies about once a month, on a Saturday afternoon, about 8 miles away. One week they got all dressed up for there shopping outing and went in to town and found everything closed and no one about. They thought something bad had happened until they found an old man and discovered it was Sunday.
Harry always said it was hard to catch the horses when they were all dressed up, so they caught the horses in their work clothes and then went and had their monthly shower and put good clothes on for there outing to Girilambone.
He travelled to New Zealand after selling his property at Warren. He was away for about a year and travelled extensively and took lots of photos of his travels.
Harry bought the next door property about 1935 of 8000 acres. He went back to Gulargambone regularly and was away for weeks at a time helping his brother Mac in their garage, Skinner Bros. One time he came back to Girilambone and found that Uncle Dick had sold all Harry’s cattle, saying he owed him money for looking after them. He did try to make amends later by changing his will to leave “Lucknow” to Harry. Unfortunately he saw a solicitor in Nyngan to change the will, but as he was on his way to Sydney by train, the will wasn’t ready to be signed before he left. His trip to Sydney was to get a new hearing aid, and while getting off a tram he was killed by a car which he didn’t hear.
Dick had an income from wool and cattle of £1,647/3/11 in 1935, a fortune in those days, when the average wage was only £150 per year.
Ted and Dick Skinner
Dick Skinner
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